When the new Congress takes office in January, Hollywood will have lost at least four staunch allies in the House of Representatives. Three co-sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act lost their seats in Tuesday's election. A fourth declined to run for another term.

According to Congress' official legislative website THOMAS, the Stop Online Piracy Act received a total of 31 co-sponsors. Eight of these representatives withdrew their support after January's historic protest against the legislation, leaving 23 members of Congress who stood by Hollywood in the face of an intense public backlash. Of those 23, three members of Congress, all from Hollywood's backyard in Southern California, lost in Tuesday's election.

The boundaries between Congressional districts were redrawn in 2012, a once-a-decade process. As a result, a number of incumbents who had traditionally enjoyed safe seats suddenly found themselves in competitive races with voters who had never voted for them before. In some cases, incumbents were forced to compete against each other.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) were two such unlucky incumbents. California has an unusual "open primary" system in which all candidates compete in a single primary and the top two vote-getters go on to the general election, regardless of party. Berman and Sherman were both supporters of SOPA, so when the re-districting forced them to face each other, Hollywood was guaranteed to lose an ally. Sherman won the race, throwing Berman out of Congress.

Mary Bono Mack, a Republican, lost her seat the old-fashioned way: to a newcomer from the opposite party. Mack is the widow of entertainer and politician Sonny Bono. After her husband died in a skiing accident in 1998, Mack ran for his seat, was elected, and led the fight for the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act later that same year. It retroactively extended copyright terms by 20 years, ensuring that no new works would fall into the public domain before 2018. On Tuesday, she lost her seat to Democrat Raul Ruiz by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent.

The third casualty was Joe Baca (D-CA). The seven-term congressman was soundly defeated by another Democrat, State Senator Negrete McLeod, by a 56 percent to 44 percent margin. According to the Los Angeles Times, McLeod benefitted from $3 million spent on her behalf by a Super PAC associated with billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

A fourth member of Congress from Southern California who will not be returning next year is Rep. Elton Gallegly. Like many of his fellow members of Congress from the greater Los Angeles area, Gallegly was an original SOPA co-sponsor. He announced on January 5 that he would not be seeking re-election.

Two other one-time SOPA supporters, Rep. Tim Holden (D-PA) and Rep. Ben Quayle (R-AZ) will not be returning for the new Congress. Both candidates initially co-sponsored the Stop Online Piracy Act but withdrew their support after January's Internet backlash. And both were defeated in primary challenges earlier this year.

We'd love to attribute the defeat of Mack and Baca to their support for the Stop Online Piracy Act. But we haven't seen any evidence that this is the case. Bono's opponent criticized her for supporting the spending proposals of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), which she claimed would undermine Medicare. The race between Berman and Sherman focused on issues such as trade and housing. McLeod got support from Bloomberg's Super PAC in part because she supported stricter gun laws. And 19 other SOPA co-sponsors, including the lead sponsor Lamar Smith (R-TX), won re-election.

Still, losing at least four allies in the House of Representatives can't have been a positive development for the motion picture industry.

*Sigh* I wanted to vote against Lamar Smith, but apparently I need to move across the street to do so.... The way districts are cut up in Texas (and I'm sure other states) is horrendous. Why aren't the people who all live in the same city, represented by the same person? My guess is because someone like Lamar Smith would have a hard time winning otherwise...

Yeah, I'd like to think that this system of voting changes people and teaches the politicians what we want and that they work for us, but I just don't buy it.

Politicians are the proudest of the proud. Their s**t doesn't stink and they're not afraid to let anyone know it. So when these supporters of SOPA get the boot, even if that is the reason and there were tons of constituents telling them that was the reason, they are so blind and arrogant that they would never believe it. They would believe that unpopular as it was, they were right, and that they were voted out for another reason or that the people making noise about SOPA were ignorant alarmists.

I don't believe these clowns were voted out because of SOPA, but even if they were, I don't think any of the other politicians would have taken notice. It's nice to think we actually have a say though.

*Sigh* I wanted to vote against Lamar Smith, but apparently I need to move across the street to do so.... The way districts are cut up in Texas (and I'm sure other states) is horrendous. Why aren't the people who all live in the same city, represented by the same person? My guess is because someone like Lamar Smith would have a hard time winning otherwise...

Unfortunately, gerrymandering is a time-honored tradition in America. I do agree with what you mean. The redistricting system can be abused when the powers that be get offended...

Hollywood knows that candidates aren't invulnerable. They will go corrupt new candidates and get them to vote against common sense.

o.O

You are assuming the candidates are not already corrupt because they are, well, politicians, a career where the entry level requirements are no conscience and a narcissistic personality disorder.

Power corrupts. And absolute power is pretty cool. New candidates will have been lower on the totem pole and are less prone to having been fully corrupted by the lobbysts. Local and state level politicians still have the illusion of being an idealist.

Still, losing at least four allies in the House of Representatives can't have been a positive development for the motion picture industry.

Is there anything that indicates that the newcomers won't support such legislation?

Nope. I practically guarantee they will vote exactly the same on that issue. SOPA was not an election issue, anywhere. Most people just do not care. This was an article in search of a narrative, that then at the end admitted the narrative was non-existent. Bizarre.

That said, at least it gives me a place to be happy about the overall results. Especially if my state passes R74 and same-sex marriage is recognized as a civil right. It was a VERY good year electorally. Now to keep the momentum into 2014...

This is where my thoughts are as well. While Hollywood might be losing people it knew it could count on, every politician's favorite lobbyist is money (and not necessarily personal kickbacks: funding for other programs, lobby support for unrelated bills, etc). And Hollywood always has more money.

Mary Bono Mack lost because of the truly terrible mudslinging ads her campaign aired non-stop on local TV. Dr. Ruiz's ads (he's an ER doctor) were also very effective with the demographic of the greater Palm Springs area; a growing number of Latino voters whom had never voted before.

Mary was likable, skilled at getting support for things in our area, and never came across as "just like every other politician." While I disagreed with her on SOPA, I'm sad to see her go. She united both sides of the aisle in our district for many years.

Glad to hear this. Even if their loss wasn't directly because of SOPA, less MAFIAA allies in Congress is a good thing.

My local rep, Kevin McCarthy, was not a SOPA supporter. I did, however, have the pleasure of voting against Dianne Feinstein for supporting PIPA. I told her office I would do so if she didn't drop her support, and I did. Too bad she won anyway.

Mary Bono Mack lost because of the truly terrible mudslinging ads her campaign aired non-stop on local TV. Dr. Ruiz's ads (he's an ER doctor) were also very effective with the demographic of the greater Palm Springs area; a growing number of Latino voters whom had never voted before.

Mary was likable, skilled at getting support for things in our area, and never came across as "just like every other politician." While I disagreed with her on SOPA, I'm sad to see her go. She united both sides of the aisle in our district for many years.

Maybe she was good for your area, but the Bonos have been no friends to the rest of the country, at least where copyright was concerned. Sonny Bono is the man who sponsored the bill that killed the public domain for my lifetime, and his widow has proven herself to be no different.

Yeah, I wasn't surprised that Franken supported SOPA-like legislation. He clearly doesn't feel that the RIAA and MPAA are evil organizations who shouldn't be trusted, which was one of the serious problems with the legislation (letting the fox watch over the hen house).

This was a big consideration for me, and I informed as many people that would listen. I will continue to do the same when more seats are up for grabs. We need to remain forever vigilant to protect our freedoms and privacy from those who will sell them for the right price.

I have little faith that **AA's money and power will not corrupt a whole new batch of politicians.

There were a few surprises though in this round of elections and ballot measures. OK banned affirmative action in many cases and four states either decriminalized or will begin allowing medical marijuana.

Timothy B. Lee / Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times.